Snowden calls on France’s Macron to grant him asylum

FILE – In this Feb. 14, 2015, file photo, Edward Snowden appears on a live video feed broadcast from Moscow at an event sponsored by ACLU Hawaii in Honolulu. Snowden has written a memoir, telling his life story in detail for the first time and explaining why he chose to risk his freedom to become perhaps the most famous whistleblower of all time. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

PARIS (AP) — Former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents detailing government surveillance programs, is calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum.

Snowden, now living in Russia to avoid prosecution in the United States, stressed in an interview broadcast Monday on France’s Inter radio that “protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act” and that he feels entitled to get protected status in France.

Snowden unsuccessfully applied for asylum in France in 2013 under Macron’s predecessor, Francois Hollande. He has also sought asylum in several other countries.

Snowden’s memoir, telling his life story in detail for the first time, will be released Tuesday in about 20 countries, including France.

The French presidency did not comment.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.